August2017 Booklist 19 www.booklistonline.coma living biography of Saul Bellow, a compli-cated, 11-year commitment? In the vein ofMeryle Secrest’s Shoot the Widow (2007) andThis Long Pursuit (2017) by Richard Holmes,Atlas relays all with wry hilarity, bigheartedcandor, and effervescentpassion for the art of liter-ary biography, from thetoils and thrills of researchto the lonely struggles ofdistillation, interpretation,and composition. He re-flects on the inspirationand instruction he gleanedfrom biographers Boswell (on Johnson),Richard Ellmann (on Joyce), and Leon Edel(on James), while addressing thickety ethicalquestions and intriguing aesthetic concerns.Anecdotes of diligence and serendipity, toldwith wit and wisdom, explicate the need fora biographer to practice “empathic observa-tion” and “self-suppression.” Atlas rhapsodizesover the “transfer of emotional energy” oneexperiences while handling letters, journals,and photographs, tangible life records thatbiographers of the future will likely have todo without, and records the intensity of therelationships his inquiries catalyzed, especiallyhis endless negotiations with the prickly andwily Bellow. Atlas’ expert, provocative, andenlightening “biographer’s tale” is a work ofboth depth and radiance. —Donna Seaman

Vanishing New York: How a GreatCity Lost Its Soul.

By Jeremiah Moss.

Aug. 2017. 464p. Morrow/Dey St., $28.99
(9780062439697). 974.7.

This is a very good, angrily passionate, and
ultimately saddening book. Moss (a pseudonym) is a blogger (the book is an outgrowth
of his blog) in love with a city
that he mourns, a city that
he feels is dissolving in a welter of unthinkable expense
(he provides egregious examples) and hypergentrification
(even more horrifying). New
York, he argues in a brilliantly written and well-informed
account, is losing its bohemian flair and often
raffish charm. Making this point, he quotes
Adam Gopnik, who has compared New
York to a former lover who has had a face-lift, losing not only her wrinkles but also
her character. Although the historical background covered here has been done before,
Moss synthesizes it superbly, noting the
trends and policies that got the city where
it is today. There is plenty of blame to pass
around: yuppies, a succession of mayors
from Koch to Bloomberg, speculators, bankers, and what Moss calls “neo-liberalism.”
The book is about displacement, race, and
social class, the substitution of elites for “
undesirables.” His conclusion: “We can still
find pleasure in the gifts of New York. It’s
just a whole lot harder than it used to be.”
—Mark Levine

The Vietnam War: An IntimateHistory.

By Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns.

Sept. 2017. 640p. illus. Knopf, $60 (9780307700254).

959.704.

In their new “intimate” yet capacious history, the award-winning, audience-enthralling
duo of historian and screenwriter Ward and
documentarian extraor-dinaire Burns investigate
the complex, divisive,
and tragic Vietnam War
from a unique plurality
of perspectives. The consistently lucid, flowing,
and dramatic narrative
begins with French colonial rule in Indochina, then marches forward
through every phase of Vietnam’s struggle for
independence, the international intervention
that divided the country, the ensuing civil
war, and the Cold War–instigated, ultimately
catastrophic American embroilment over four
administrations. With the combined impact
of robustly detailed writing and more than

500 staggering photographs, Ward and Burns
thoroughly chronicle horrific combat and
relentless bombing missions, the mass deployment of napalm and Agent Orange, the
suffering and death of civilians, the resiliency
of North Vietnamese forces, and the powerful
antiwar movement. The eye-opening stories
of key public figures, from Ho Chi Minh
and Ngo Dinh Diem to Lyndon Johnson
and Richard Nixon, are matched by those of
“ordinary” people, including American and
South and North Vietnamese soldiers and
their families; an American doctor POW; a
woman field nurse; a young, long-separated
North Vietnamese couple; antiwar activists, including war veterans; and Vietnamese
refugees. With reflections by prominent journalists and writers, including Philip Caputo
and Viet Thanh Nguyen, this is a vivid, affecting, definitive, and essential illustrated
history. —Donna Seaman

HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Powerful in
its own right, this superlative volume will be
released with much fanfare and a 350,000
print run in conjunction with the September
airing of Burns and Ward’s 10-part PBS series.

YA: An invaluable and accessible resource
for older YAs, for personal browsing and
reading as well as research. DS.

The Woman Who Smashed Codes: ATrue Story of Love, Spies, and theUnlikely Heroine Who OutwittedAmerica’s Enemies.

By Jason Fagone.

Sept. 2017. 320p. illus. Morrow/Dey St., $27.99

(9780062430489); e-book, $14.99 (9780062430502).

940.54.

Fans of forgotten history, take note. Fagone(Ingenious: A True Story of Invention, Automo-tive Daring, and the Race to Revive America,2013) has found a twentieth-century storythat reads more like a thriller than nonfiction.Furthermore, Elizebeth Smith Friedman’s lifehas all the hallmarks of a Hollywood hit, andshe is long overdue for thelimelight. One of the great-est cryptologists of all time,she started her career in1917, working for a mercu-rial millionaire who soughtto prove that a hiddencode exists in Shakespeare’sworks that reveals FrancisBacon as their true author. After meeting anequally gifted code-breaking genius on thatproject, William Friedman, the man whobecame the father of the National SecurityAgency, the two broke German codes inWWI. Then, as a married couple working forthe government, Elizebeth unraveled cypherscreated by rumrunners and gangsters duringProhibition, then moved on to underminethe Nazis. She never sought the spotlight,and as others, notably J. Edgar Hoover,took credit for her achievements, she wasforced by national security requirements toremain silent. Riveting, inspiring, and richin colorful characters, Fagone’s extensivelyresearched and utterly dazzling title is popu-lar history at its very best and a book clubnatural. —Colleen Mondor

YA: The combination of Shakespeare,
cryptography, rumrunners, and Nazi-busting makes this a lively choice for teens
looking to spice up their American history
studies. CM.

Wonderlandscape: Yellowstone NationalPark and the Evolution of an AmericanCultural Icon.

By John Clayton.

Aug. 2017. 298p. illus. Pegasus, $27.95

(9781681774572). 978.7.

Clayton (Stories from Montana’s Enduring
Frontier, 2013) illuminates the history and
development of Yellowstone, America’s first
and still largest national park. A place so geologically different from what most Americans
were familiar with that in the 1870s, when it
was first documented, it was viewed as divinely inspired and sublime. Early tourists were
eager to experience cowboy life and test their
mettle in the wilderness. Tour guides brought
visitors by stagecoach to the same attractions
that still enthrall visitors, including the Old
Faithful geyser and the Grand Canyon of
Yellowstone. Tales of encounters with griz-zlies added excitement as family vacationing
in the park steadily increased. A half-century
later, Yogi Bear became synonymous with the
park as Yellowstone pioneered self-guided
tours, roadside information kiosks, and the
rustic building style adopted by nearly all
national parks. Conservation, then a new
science, changed society’s understanding of
habitats and interactions between humans
and animals. Clayton enthusiastically tells
the foundational stories of the magnificent
park, which continues to capture the imagination of millions, and explains Yellowstone’s
impact on how we manage our natural resources. —Dan Kaplan